Solar Decathlon Update from Secretary Chu

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SECRETARY OF ENERGY STEVEN CHU: So hi, Facebook fans. I’m here on the Mall in Washington, D.C. What we have is a solar decathlon, universities competing to see who makes the most efficient house, the most – the best solar house, ones that have the best renewable resources and recycling – very, very exciting because these are projects that are student-run, and the students are remarkable. They’ve gotten together. They’re applying high technology. They’re learning about fundraising. They’re learning all sorts of things.

And what we see are glimpses of what will be in the future homes of tomorrow. These are cutting-edge things. And when I talk to some of the students, they said, well –

I ask, how much time do you spend on this? You know, you’re full-time students.

They said, well, sometimes 80 hours a week.

So in physics, that’s known as an alternate universe that you can spend 80 hours a week building a home like this with your own brain, your own hands, and still go to school. But it’s fabulous. It shows how exciting things can be. It shows when students get together how ingenious they are. Some of this stuff, we hope, will be (sort of ?) regularly installed maybe five or 10 years from today. But it’s a very exciting time and again, you know, many things in the world, some of the best ideas come from our youngest people.

So it’s very encouraging. You should – if you can’t be here in Washington to walk around and look for these things, you can take a virtual tour and so you should look that up on the website.